(These photos were taken during a hike to Blossom Lake in the Evans Gulch roadless area in western Montana on August 31, 2011. Though late in the year, there are still several species of wildflowers in full bloom there.)

Subalpine Spirea ~ Spiraea densiflora

Scouler’s St. Johnswort, Norton’s St. Johnswort ~ Hypericum scouleri

Pinedrops ~ Pterospora andromedea (Saprophytic perennial)

Pinedrops are saprophytic perennials with unbranched flowering stems, fleshy at flowering, then turning fibrous and persisting as dried stems for over a year. (Saprophytes do not have green leaves or contain chlorophyll and cannot manufacture their own food and therefore do not depend on the sun. Instead, they obtain their food from decaying material in the litter and humus and are usually found in the deep shade of mature coniferous forests.)

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The pinedrops just made me laugh! The closeup truly looks like a Christmas decoration from Pier One! A beautiful plant. Do you know if the subalpine spirea is related to the very common white spirea often called “bridal wreath”? I still can smell its fragrance from the bushes that surrounded our house. I miss so many of the midwestern flowers – our tropicals are nice, but…. 😉

I think that folks get so used to seeing the dried-up version of Pinedrops that they overlook them when they are in bloom. I find them quite interesting!

I’ve seen on USDA Plants that there is a white Spirea, but I don’t know if it’s the same as bridal wreath. We have a plant called Bridal Wreath in one of our flower beds, but it doesn’t look anything like white Spirea. THere is a lot of confusion when it comes to plant names!

Practically no berries along the trail or at the lake that we could see. I’ve heard of some isolated spots that have good berries this year, but I’ve not found any in the places I’ve been. This seems to have been a strange year for berries. The chokecherries here are not good at all this year, but the Serviceberries had a wonderful year, as did the Elderberries and Oregon Grapes. Wild raspberries around here did well, but Thimbleberries dried up before the ripened.

It’s been strange like that here too. Serviceberries and eldeberries were great–we had the best-tasting and biggest serviceberries I’ve had–but currants and some other fruits didn’t ever show up. And the huckleberries looked like they were going to have a banner year, but the crop has been middling.

We seem to have every light condition I can imagine, but I take a lot of photos, especially of wildflowers, in places where they are shaded by the trees. That diffused light is excellent for shooting flowers. In spring, lots of my photos are taken from under an umbrella which I always carry in my pack. (It also works to shade subjects from harsh sunlight and to break the wind that keeps moving the wildflowers.)

I am a dunce when it comes to any real knowledge about plants. I did not know about saprophytics, so thank you for introducing me to them. Are the photos sort of a pre-bloom and full bloom? I love the top one of pre-blooming spirea. Purples with the green, no matter the flower, really appeals to me. Thanks so much for this pre-dawn show of color. Lovely.

I didn’t comment earlier, but it looks like your daughter, with that beautiful red hair, has photography in her blood. 🙂 What a great gift to give someone, that love of seeing the world up close, in all its splendor.

I think the Pine Drops are in full bloom, although each individual blossom seems to open at a different time. It’s a treat to see them when in bloom: they are always quite visible, but most of the time they are in their dried state. I don’t have a lot of plant knowledge either, but I do have great book on the plants in this area which gives very good information about them.

Yes, I think my daughter has a natural talent for photography. In most situations, she is far better than I am, and that pleases me very much.

Your pictures of Spirea, Pinedrops, and St. Johnswort remind me of the the abundance I recently saw in the Sierra at about 6000 – 8000 ft recently. The area an hour north of Lake Tahoe was lush with wildflowers and unripened berries. The plants are about a month behind because of all the late snow The only ones who seem to be rushing around worrying about the impending winter were the squirrels and chipmunks, who were busily gathering and storing seeds. There were still lots of deer around as well as ducks on the lakes, so from their point of view winter is a ways off. Have you notice the onset of migration in your area? I have read that it has started in the northern Midwestern states.

This has been a good year for the plants on the Northwest, and with La Nina conditions re-emerging, next year should be a repeat of this one. We had drought conditions for about ten years here, broken by the snow of last winter and the rains of spring and I’m looking forward to more of the wetter weather.

I’ve seen some signs of migration already. Our hummingbirds are gone already, and I see some huge flocks of birds forming, which is usually their preparation for migration. Few geese are around now which means here that some have left for other places and the ones that winter here have not arrived yet. Robins are still here in large numbers, but Chickadees which usually winter here have not come down from the higher elevations yet. Kind of a mixed bag!

Are the first two photos the same type of flower? The first one reminds me of something I found on our vacation in Indiana (no clue what it is, of course), but then it doesn’t look like the second photo at all (and I’m still clueless LOL).
The pinedrops look really interesting, too.

The first two are just different stages of the same flowers. There are mostly buds in the first, and nearly all full blossoms in the second. The pinedrops are interesting to me too. They are not rare here, but they sure are different from most other types of flowers.

Ooooh! Beautiful pictures! I have a dried pinedrops stem in with some feathers in a vase in the front room, but I’d never seen the flowers when they were still fresh. How cool! I don’t know that I’d’ve recognized that as from the same plant even.

(Hi!! It looks like things are beautiful there, though it sounds like it’s been bad fire weather. Are those getting under control?)

I’ve found that you have to look very closely at the pinedrops to see if they are really in bloom. I was pleased to see that these were!

You would not have enjoyed the fire season this year. One of the largest was just out of East Missoula and the smoke was terrible, blowing into the Missoula area (still is). The TV news showed photos of the smoke in Missoula tonight from their weather cam and it was impossible to distinguish the mountains around the town. We were lucky out here with quite a few fires but only small ones. We are getting some smoke from fires in Idaho though. We had jsut a little rain today and there is more possible this weekend which will greatly help the fire situation!

Hi Montucky, The Pinedrops are interesting looking flowers. I sure do admire your picture-taking ability! Have an excellent day & rest of the week. I am still off on blog break but will be back and will post a lot of new wildlife pictures when I return to blogging in Oct.

The flowers here in the low elevations are about shot now too, but it is still early summer in the regions above 6000 feet or so and the flowers there are still fresh. They do seem to explode, I suppose because they have such a short growing season.

This particular species of Spirea isn’t native to Arizona, just California and further north. I’m sad that I didn’t do a very good job observing wildflowers when I lived in Arizona either, especially the desert species.

Great close-ups. I enjoyed the variety of colors in these flowers. Pinedrops was unknown to me, but it is quite special looking. Its Latin name:”Pterospora andromedea” made me to think that its origin is from Andromeda. 🙂

Very interesting information about the pinedrops… I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it before but never knew what it was… and I don’t think it is in any of my wildflower books. The next time I see it, I’ll know what it is (even if unable to remember the name at the time!) 😉

It has an unusual distribution according the USDA Plants, native to most of the western states and some of the northernmost states in the east. Certainly forest type has a lot to do with that and possible elevation as well.

I was pleased that there were still many flower species in bloom at that altitude (about 6,000 feet). There are more higher up than that and I’m hoping that I can still make it to a couple more peaks yet this fall to see them.

We have had a few nights in the 30’s, but mostly in the 40’s, temperatures just where I like them! South of here in west Yellowstone the other night it was 27. I’ve been making sure I have several warm layers of clothing in my pack when I get into the higher country now.

The flowers blooming at the lower elevations now are just a few species. Up high there are many more because it it more like mid-summer now up there. I still haven’t posted photos of the flowers on Mount Headley, where there were about ten species still in full bloom.

The only way I can see comments is to go to the Montana Outdoors homepage https://montucky.wordpress.com/ then click on the comments link following the photos in the thread in question. Troublesome, but worth the bother. I’m hoping it’s a temporary glitch that will fix itself. Thanks montucky.